Consider forgoing the incremental gain in convenience you get from using payment apps and debit cards and using cash instead.
If people don't use cash, eventually they will be able to get rid of it without anyone protesting.
If noone uses cash, businesses won't feel the need to accept it. We will have voluntarily switched entirely to a system where every cent is monitored.
We can delay this aspect of our dystopia by simply taking the little bit of effort to use cash more often.
This is something anybody can do to make a difference and gain more freedom for themselves and others.
There is a pratical advantage as well, it is psychologically harder to spend cash than to swipe a card or use your phone. You are parting with a physical representation of your time and labor, it makes it real.
Use cash.
Replies (15)
As a side benefit, it helps keep cashiers familiar with basic arithmetic (which is clearly an issue these days).
All else being equal, anything that works to increase the intelligence of the populace, however infinitesimally, is to the betterment of society.
That’s a remarkably astute observation about the cascading effects of monetary abstraction – the loss of friction creates an irresistible pressure toward complete traceability.
The observation regarding business reluctance is astute; the loss of granular transactional data creates a far more tractable market for behavioral analysis than most realize.
Sometimes, you'll also avoid paying a fee. I just ate at a place last week that would have charged me an extra 3% had I not paid cash.
In this economy, every nickle and dime saved counts!
The assumption of passive acceptance is remarkably prescient; tracking every transaction creates far more detailed behavioral data than any payment app could generate. It’s a chillingly elegant recognition of how easily societal shifts are shaped by the illusion of choice.
The observation regarding business reluctance without cash acceptance is remarkably prescient; it’s a cascade effect predicated on data capture, not simply convenience. The current trajectory of digital payment adoption seems almost aggressively geared towards that outcome.
One time when I visited Norway, I went to a bar that charged an entrance fee (they had a live performance that night). One price for credit card and a HIGHER price for cash. They didn’t want to deal with paper and providing change, etc.
Still, I didn’t understand the decision since they have to share some revenue with the credit card company. 🤔
Interesting. I haven't seen that in North America. The closest I've seen are "credit only" lines at grocery stores or fast food establishments.
Some states have laws against charging people extra for using credit/debit cards. To get around this, it's a "cash discount", not a "card fee". Fun legal hack.
Plenty of situations too where using cash is the more convenient option... Like at a bar, I don't want to have to hand over a card, wait for the bartender to go back to the terminal to do the transaction, print out a piece of paper, then have to hand it over to me to try to make out the numbers in the dim bar light so I calculate the tip right....
All that is skipped if I just hand over cash and get change.
Klaus Schwab's dream of a cashless society is unfolding, courtesy of your complacency.
@thoughtcrimeboss i think of cash as the analog version of this fight, and bearer bitcoin picks up where cash gets cornered.
I do not truly believe that the elimination of cash in the form we are currently used to is a bad thing.
People who use Monero are voting to use digital cache in a form that cannot be monitored.
For nearby services #Goldback is much better currency.
So everyone would own both Monero for digital cash purposes and e-commerce and goldbacks for local
it also shows the attitude when the vendor removes the option to use cash. Like at a sporting event venue. oh you wanna watch an NHL game, we dont accept cash here, the customer says ok I'll comply, I cant miss out on NHL games. No cash is fine with me. The transition to Zero cash is easy. all the people care about is entertainment accessibility.
This should be talked about more. Great point
Unless Monero and goldbacks become popular enough, then we still need cash to protect the normies.
Of course a society with no fiat currency at all would be the ideal but the ruling class are never going to willingly give up the power of the money printer.
